Top Energy Stories of 2011: #3) The fall (maybe) of Nuclear

By Keith Heyde

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that ravaged Japan on March 11^th of 2011 did immeasurable damage.  As well as being a natural disaster of monumental proportions (as high as 20,000 deaths, and around $30 Billion in damages) the earthquake/tsunami (collectively known as the Tohoku system) created a nuclear meltdown in the northeastern city of Fukushima.

Japan has historically relied heavily on nuclear power. A country devoid of almost any petroleum reserves and struggling with close to 2 decades of economic stagnation, Japan has relied on Nuclear Energy to balance its (already fickle) trade deficit.

However, that trend may be changing.

The Fukushima Nuclear meltdown is undeniably the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Similarly, the ‘reason for failure’ is exactly similar from a physics perspective. Simply, the tsunami severed the electronic cooling system from the reactors. This created a situation in which the reactors would heat uncontrollably fast. This would cause what is commonly known as a ‘meltodown’ or more technically, when the fission reaction caused by the Uranium fuel rods is allowed to progress without restraint. In an effort of cool the reactors, the Japanese government ordered they be cooled via seawater. After weeks of heroic efforts on the part of numerous workers and officials (some of whom perished and most of whom were exposed to radiation overdoses) the reactor was contained.

However, the legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster is much grander than the residual radiation in the area. The issue brought developed nuclear, a power that has lurking the background since the end of the cold war, into the focus for most people.

Nuclear power has issues. No country today can safely store the fuel rods. It also poses a huge terrorism threat for both the spent fuel and the plant itself can cause immense radiation damage. Fukushima brought forth both these issues to a society that has been turning a blind eye towards nuclear for some time.

However, does this mean that Nuclear power is going away? Not by a long shot. Nuclear power may not be ‘expanded’ and it may have to undergo some serious safety evaluations. However, so long as we burn through our finite supplies of fossil fuels, we will keep the Nuclear technology in the background, waiting for when it will play a larger role. After all, the Uranium content within seawater (although difficult to harvest) could power the entire earth for over 200,000 years at current energy consumption levels. Plus, with advances in Fusion based and breeder-plant technologies, Nuclear power is becoming increasingly efficient.

With that said, it is still not safe. However, Japan, although decommissioning its Fukushima site, is not closing all of its nuclear power plants. It can’t.

There may come a day when the world must weight the safety of the plant against the availability of the electricity it supplies. One can only hope by then we have safer, more secure, and more sustainable designs.